Man With Knife Shot By Nn Police

February 28, 1989|By DAVID CHERNICKY Staff Writer

NEWPORT NEWS — A 20-year-old maintenance man brandishing a knife was shot in the hand by a city police officer early Monday.

Christopher Faulk, 20, of Woodsong Apartments was charged with attempted capital murder after he was shot, said city police Sgt. Art Nolan. Faulk was listed in satisfactory condition at Riverside Regional Medical Center late Monday.

"I was about to flip the knife to stick it in the ground and when my hand got half-way down that's when he pulled the trigger," Faulk claimed during a telephone interview from the hospital.

Nolan said the officer fired after Faulk tried to run away and then turned and threw the knife.

The officer, whom Nolan declined to identify, was sent to the apartment complex in the 5500 block of Marshall Avenue after a resident called police at 1:22 a.m. to complain about a large crowd fighting.

When the officer arrived, he saw a woman being threatened by a man with a butcher knife, Nolan said. "Then he saw the man turn on the woman and she fell to the ground screaming hysterically. The officer thought the woman had been stabbed."

Nolan said Faulk ran and the officer pursued him. During the chase, the officer repeatedly ordered the man to stop but was ignored. The man then "suddenly stopped and turned in an aggressive manner, throwing the knife at the officer," Nolan said.

"At this point, the officer fired one round at the man, hitting him in the right hand," Nolan said.

Faulk, a maintenance man at Glen Garden Apartments, said the middle finger and thumb on his right hand - which had been holding the knife - were hit by the bullet.

Nolan said additional details would come only after the department's Firearms Discharge Investigative Team finishes work.

Also in accordance with the department's policy, the officer was suspended with pay Monday pending a finding by the firearms team, Nolan said.

Though Faulk admitted he had a knife outside the apartments, he said he was confronting a man, not a woman.

Faulk claimed he never tried to run and had his back turned partly away from the policeman. He said he was trying to comply with the officer's order to drop the weapon when he was shot.

Faulk said he was turned slightly so that his left side faced the officer and guessed he was standing "10 or 11 feet" from the policeman.

Faulk said he took the knife from his mother's apartment minutes earlier to defend himself against a man who had armed himself with an ax handle. Their dispute began after Faulk told the woman, who ended up screaming on the ground, to leave a party, he said.

Faulk said he was the deejay for the party and was taking his stereo equipment home when the other man began assaulting him. When he saw the man had an ax handle, Faulk said he went to his apartment and picked up a butcher knife.